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HOUSE OF CLUNIAC NUNS

7. THE ABBEY OF DELAPRÉ

The religious house of Delapré or abbey of
St. Mary de Pratis, near Northampton, according
to the confirmation charter of Edward III. was
founded by Simon de St. Liz the younger in the
reign of Stephen. (fn. 1) The nuns followed the rule of
Cluny. Leland states that they were in the first
instance placed at Fotheringhay, but afterwards
removed to Delapré. (fn. 2) The sisters retained the
church of Fotheringhay, their original endowment,
until the founding of the college at that place.

The founder endowed the abbey with large
possessions in Hardingstone and with the churches
of Barton, Great Doddington, and Fotheringhay. Edward III. confirmed to the nuns
also the churches of Wollaston and Filgrave
and the advowson of the church of Fyfield. (fn. 3)
Among innumerable smaller gifts may be mentioned the grant by the founder of a 'tun'
of wine yearly at Pentecost for celebration of the
mass, of 2s. rent and two days' work the gift of
Ingelram Fitz-Henry and Alice his wife, and
a donation by Richard, warden of the hospital of
St. John, Northampton, and the brethren of 3s.
annual rent to be received by the abbess by the
hands of the cellarer of the hospital from the
said warden and brethren in perpetuity. (fn. 4) Malcolm and William, kings of Scotland, confirmed
to the nuns the church of Fotheringhay, and John
de Balliol acquitted them and their tenants from
suit of his court of Fotheringhay; David, brother
of the king of Scotland, bestowed on them the
liberty of having a cart to pick up firewood in
the wood of Yardley for the necessities of the
house. (fn. 5) Notwithstanding the long list of benefactors the gross annual value of the abbey,
according to the Valor of 1535, only amounted
to £126 16s. 3d., its clear value being
£119 9s. 7d. (fn. 6)

Little is recorded of the history of the nunnery
beyond entries relating to the election or appointment of superiors. These, notwithstanding the
custom of the order, which ordained that the
superiors of all cells and dependent houses should
be nominated by the abbot of Cluny as supreme
head, were elected by the community itself, a
royal licence having been previously obtained,
the king subsequently signifying his assent to the
diocesan and issuing instructions to his escheator
to restore the temporalities. In 1294 the abbess
received a grant of royal protection from
Edward I. together with abbots and priors of the
Benedictine order. (fn. 7) John de Feriby, clerk, was
sent with letters to the abbess and convent in
February, 1327-8, entitling him to receive the
pension due from them to one of the king's
clerks by reason of the new creation of the
abbess. (fn. 8)

No mention occurs of the visitation of this
Cluniac house by delegates appointed by the
general chapter for the purpose of visiting
English houses of the order; the subjection of
the nunnery to the diocesan, on the other hand,
seems never to have been disputed. He confirmed the election of the abbess, on two occasions
annulled the choice of the convent on the ground
of a defect in the process of election, but subsequently confirmed the appointment on consideration of the merits of the abbess-elect. In
January, 1333-4, Isabel de Cotesbrok on the
death of Margaret de Grey was chosen by the
community and obtained the royal assent to her
promotion; the bishop, however, formally quashed
the election and appointed Katherine Knyvet. (fn. 9)
She was one of the many heads of religious
foundations who fell a victim to the terrible
visitation of the plague in 1349, (fn. 10) and the bishop,
again on the ground of a defect in election,
appointed her successor Isabel de Thorp. (fn. 11)

The condition of the house appears in a somewhat unsatisfactory state at the commencement
of the fourteenth century. The bishop in 1300
issued a mandate to the archdeacon of Northampton to denounce Isabel de Clouville, Maud
Rychemers, and Ermentrude de Newark, professed
nuns of Delapré, who had discarded the habit of
religion and notoriously lived a secular life, as
apostate nuns, also to inquire as to who had aided
them in their apostasy. (fn. 12) In 1311 another sister,
Agnes de Landwath, was denounced for apostasy
and for forsaking the habit of religion. (fn. 13) Simul
taneously with these irregularities it is evident
that the material condition of the abbey had
suffered, and in 1303 the bishop granted an indulgence for those who should assist the construction and repairs of the conventual church of
St. Mary de Pratis without Northampton. (fn. 14) In
1316 Simon, vicar of Thorp, was appointed by
the bishop to be master of the abbess and convent of Delapré. (fn. 15) During the rule of Bishop
Repingdon (1405-1419) an indenture was
entered into between the abbess of Delapré
and the diocesan as to a pension from
the church of Great Doddington appropriated to
the abbey. (fn. 16) Bishop Gray visited the house in
the course of his episcopate (1431-1436), and
enjoined that certain nuns, who after many years
of probation had not been professed, should be
professed without further delay; the rest of his
injunctions are purely formal and throw no light
on the condition of the house. (fn. 17) We may infer,
however, that its condition in the middle of the
fifteenth century was satisfactory from the fact
that the bishop in January, 1459-60, sanctioned
the appropriation to it of the priory of Sewardsley, the income of the latter house being insufficient to maintain its inmates. (fn. 18)

The last abbess of Delapré, Clementina Stock,
elected in January, 1504-5, (fn. 19) managed to obtain
a respite for her house when the smaller monasteries were dissolved. At the cost of a sum of
£266 13s. 4d. and the reservation to the crown
of a close of pasture and a wood called Gorefeld
at Hanslope, Bucks, she obtained a re-grant of
her convent on 6th December, 1536, together
with her own reappointment as abbess. (fn. 20) But
the respite was merely temporary, and the aged
abbess and her community were forced into a
surrender on 15th December, 1538. No
signatures are appended to the deed of surrender
made out to 'John London, Clerk to the
King's use,' but it bears the common seal. (fn. 21) On
23 December London wrote from Northampton to Sir R. Riche announcing that he and
Dr. Baskervyle had taken the surrender of
Delapré, that the abbess was sickly and aged, and
that they had assigned her a pension of £40
which she could not long enjoy; the house, he
added, was so well endowed that the goods and
chattels sufficed to defray the debts notwithstanding the great cost of obtaining the king's late
charter. (fn. 22) An extract from another letter of
London's is interesting as illustrating the aims
and motives of many or most of the officials
entrusted with the carrying-out of the plans of
Henry VIII. 'At Delapray I had ii chalyces and
a pyxe, and the house wasse grately storyd wt.
cattill and corn. Ye shall see me make you a
praty bank by that time I come next upp.' (fn. 23)

The aged abbess was treated liberally, (fn. 24) but
the prioress and seven other nuns received miserably poor pensions. In 1553 five of these
pensioners were still on the list; Elizabeth
Welsher, the late prioress, was receiving
£2 13s. 4d., another lady £1 13s. 4d., a third
£1 6s. 8d., and two more 20s. each.

The site of the abbey and its demesne lands
was granted 12th February, 1542, by the crown
to John Marsh. (fn. 25) In the reign of Elizabeth they
passed to the family of Tate. Bridges in 1720
says that the modern house stood on the site of
the old convent, 'of which there remain only
some battlements at the west end, and what is
supposed to have been a part of the chapel.' (fn. 26)

It was the custom of the weavers' gild at
Northampton to make an annual procession on
Easter Monday to the conventual church of
Delapré. The following is taken from the
ordinances of the gild, 1431-2:—'First that all
the Maistres and journeymen of the seide crafts
that nowe ben and shall ben ev'ry yere the
Monedday in the Morowe after pasch day after
the good and comendable custom of her craft
goo honestly with her tapers of wex as it hath
been continued of olde Auncyen tyme to the
house of our lady seynt Mary de la pré besyde
Northampton there offeryng up here seide tapers
before the ymages of the Trynitie and our
Lady ther.' (fn. 27)